1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a charging system of an electric powered vehicle, and more specifically to a charging system of an electric powered vehicle configured to be chargeable by an external charging facility.
2. Description of the Background Art
In recent years, as an eco-friendly vehicle, attentions have been attracted to an electric powered vehicle, such as an electric automobile, a hybrid car, a fuel-cell car and the like, which carries an electric storage device typified by a secondary battery, and as a driving device, has a motor configured so that driving force can be generated by electric power from the electric storage device.
Particularly, with the electric powered vehicle, by constructing the electric storage device such that it can be charged by a electric power source outside the vehicle (hereinafter, also referred to as “external electric power source”) during parking, above all, by performing the charge by the external electric power source using midnight power, contribution to control of total traveling cost, and reduction in an amount of greenhouse gas (particularly CO2) emission has been expected. Hereinafter, the charge of the electric storage device by the external electric power source is also referred to simply as “external charge”
Generally, the external charge is executed by electrically connecting between the electric storage device mounted on the electric powered vehicle and the above-described external electric power source through a dedicated charging cable or the like. For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-250190 (Patent Document 1) has described a configuration in which when a connector of a charger or the like is connected to a vehicle, that is, at the time of external charge, information of a product and service suitable for the vehicle and a user is acquired from an information processing device provided in an information management center to be presented in an information processing device provided in the vehicle.
Moreover, as an art related to the present invention, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2003-18255 (Patent Document 2) has described a billing method when a battery of a portable telephone is charged, characterized in that in return for having the battery charged, standby screen data, ringing melody data or the like that is advertisement information of a service company and/or a charging stand is transmitted to a storage device in the portable telephone, and that the use of this data as the display or the ringing melody for a predetermined period waives or discounts payment for the charge.
In view of recently increased social interest in environmental problems including the adoption of Kyoto Protocol, expanded use of the electric powered vehicle having a high reduction effect of greenhouse gas emission, particularly expanded use of external charge, has high social significance.
Accordingly, the realization of a charging system in which increase in merit of external charge for a user of the electric powered vehicle motivates the expanded use has been desired. In this respect, in the configuration of Patent Document 1, a merit of the external charge is only to obtain the information of a product or service suitable for the vehicle and the user, so that there is a concern that an appealing effect is insufficient for the expanded use of the external charge.